The real life 'Aristocats' of St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum
CNN
Walk in the footsteps of Russian tsars at one of the world's largest museums, where cats prowl the premises by royal decree, doing a job of their own dating back hundreds of years.
(CNN) — While you're strolling the grand halls of the State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, Russia, you might hear the faint sound of a meow coming from pipes below.
Roaming the sprawling basement of what was once the Winter Palace -- the official residence of Russia's ruling tsars -- are nearly 50 cats who are treated like royalty. Down in the main room (the "koshachiy dom," or "cat's house") they are fed and cared for by the staff at the Hermitage, with veterinarians on call.
The palace also has a special room for the more anti-social cats that prefer little contact with their fellow felines. Then there are the ones who meander the halls of the basement, lying on large pipes and trotting freely about the nooks and crannies of the palace.
Judge restricts federal response to Minnesota protests amid outrage over immigration agents’ tactics
Immigration agents carrying out a sweeping operation in Minnesota can’t deploy certain crowd-control measures against peaceful protesters or arrest them, a federal judge ruled Friday. The order follows widespread outrage over a fatal shooting, reports of US citizens getting detained and Minnesotans getting asked for documents for no clear reason.
Celebrities and laypeople are sharing fond memories from 2016, the era of face “baking” and #ImWithHer, when some of the biggest national dramas pitted Kim Kardashian against Taylor Swift.
The anti-abortion movement is testing new strategies to force a legal confrontation over so-called shield laws in Democratic-led states that protect abortion providers in those states from prosecution.
After pushback from both gun rights and gun control groups, the Trump administration has quietly abandoned its plan to merge the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to people briefed on the matter.
The smell of wet grass from the recent atmospheric river rains, mud and gasoline wafts through the warm Southern California air as Alec Derpetrossian works the chainsaw with a foreman, Randy Magaña, who helps him guide where to put the blade. Derpetrossian is still learning how to adequately use the large tool.
Franz Rowland has heard President Donald Trump endlessly brag about a roaring economy, but he’s seen few signs of it from his cotton farm here in southern Georgia.
Emergency call logs and reports detailing last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration officer reveal a greater sense of the organizational chaos and heightened emotion surrounding her final moments.
The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over possible obstruction of federal law enforcement, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
The US-based rescue team Grey Bull has released a short video showing how they helped Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado escape the country last month.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche visited Minneapolis on Friday, according to a post on Patel’s X account.
Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, is expected to appear in a Utah court Friday afternoon for what could be a consequential hearing in the case.
The Trump administration took a major step toward giving President Donald Trump’s sweeping new ballroom the green light with the appointment of four new officials to a key Washington, DC, board this week.
President Donald Trump said Friday he is considering applying new tariffs on countries that oppose his ambition of annexing Greenland.